What if I edit a photo but the original makes it's way back into the same folder?

What if I merge my collection of family photos with my brother's collection, knowing he has some of my photos already?

Because of the above factors duplicates are inevitable.

So I could easily download any duplicate file finding software and move or delete the dupes, there are many free programs that do that. But these programs compare files - byte by byte - and only find the files that are literally the same.

But what if I scan a photo twice? Those two images are the same but the files are not literally the same, byte by byte.

What if I do a batch resize on a set of images but later those accidentally get moved into the same folder as the originals?

The above two examples would give me photos that are the same, yet different on a byte by byte comparison.

So a software is needed that can compare two images - not byte by byte - but compare two images that are "similar"

Image Comparer is the best software I have tried so far that does this.

In addition to solving my dilemma illustrated above it can also be used to simply compare similar images. For example - What if you want your collection to be diverse so the images aren't very similar, so browsing your collection won't feel repetitive? This software can help with that as well.

So for my review I will try to organize my "Family photos" folder. It is a big folder containing slide scans, print scans, images from me, images from my brother's collection, images from my sister's collection, and choice images from other folders. There are over 4000 photos in this collection. I like to maintain this collection of family photos so I can make copies for my family on CD-ROM. Therefore I would like to remove "duplicates" and extremely similar images.

Usage

First step, start image comparer and you'll see a "wizard", click "next" ...

and again click "next" ...

Now add the folder(s) you want to compare. I chose a single folder called "people" from my family photos collection.

Click "next" ...

and click "process" ...

It will take a few minutes to process ...

When it's finished you'll see the gallery view. Click the "image pairs" tab at the top left...

And now we can begin comparing. The process is so simple and intuitive I feel it's ingenious.

At the top are the two photos in question. The percent of similarity is in the middle. The green arrow points to the image that is higher quality. And at the bottom is the list of file names and location.

At the bottom place a checkmark on the photo that will be moved (or deleted). Then press the down arrow on your keyboard to view the next pair of images.

The two images above were exactly the same, yet one was better quality so I checked off the one of lesser quality. The next pair of images are exactly the same yet have different file names, so I check off the one with a less desirable file name. Then I press the down arrow key on my keyboard to load the next pair of images.

In this example the images are very similar but different enough for me to keep both, so I do not check off either one. Down arrow on the keyboard brings us to the next pair of images.

In this example the cropped image and the original image ended up in the same folder, so I chose to keep the cropped one and checked off the original. Press the down arrow to get to the next pair of images ...

Fast forward : eventually I was all done checking off the images I wanted to move. I right click in the lower part of the screen and it brings up a menu, from the menu I choose "Move marked images" - this seems safer than deleting them.

Using the "Make new folder" button I create a folder called "dupes" ...

And move all the marked files there. Now I am done

Conclusion

Like most things from Russia, Image Comparer is simple, innovative, and inexpensive. I find it intuitive and convenient. You can download the trial version and use it for free for 30 days, if you decide you want to use it longer it is $35 to buy.

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Thanks. Just what I need. My external hard drive is loaded with duplicate photo's since my daughter often forgot to delete shots from her camera after downloading them. They ended up getting downloaded again just with a few more added to the mix. Guess who she takes after.

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